A total of 1.29 crore persons have been screened till December 12 under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke, of which 9.67 lakh people are suspected to be diabetic, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply.
He said NPCDCS was launched in 2010 in 100 districts of 21 states under which opportunistic screening for diabetes and hypertension has been taken up for persons aged 30 years and above.
The programme has been launched with a focus on awareness generation for behaviour and life-style changes, early diagnosis of persons with high levels of risk factors and their referral to higher facilities for appropriate treatment, Azad said.
It has also been envisaged to build capacity at various levels of health care system for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases including diabetes, he said.
The Minister said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is in the process of developing a low-cost diabetes testing device.
"Prototype is under development," the Minister said, adding that the time by which the device is likely to be introduced in the market cannot be estimated.
As per ICMR report 'Assessment of burden of Non-Communicable Diseases 2006', the prevalence of diabetes in the age group of 30 to 89 was ranging from 26 to 200 per 1000 in urban females and 78 to 333 per 1000 in urban males. In rural areas, it was 8.6 to 66.6 in females and 26 to 111 in males.
He said it has been estimated that in 2004 there were 3,77,68,402 cases of Diabetes mellitus in India, of which 2,14,04,225 cases were in urban areas and 1,63,64,177 cases in rural population.
